The Editor, Sir:

I am often amazed how casually Jamaicans use the word garrison to refer to some communities. Do we really understand what it means and, even more important, what it represents? The word garrison means a 'fortified stronghold','body of troops in fortress,' or 'military station'. To name our communities garrisons is to say that we are somehow a stronghold, troops defending or fighting for a territory. The name garrison creates a separation and stigmatisation of a community. After years of separation because of political affiliation, do we want to continue this corrosive culture of separation among our communities. Doesn't a man have the right to interact with his brothers and share for the common good?

Calling a community a garrison is a way of creating a certain type of lifestyle. We have seen the lifestyle and the consequences of the lifestyle of the so-called garrisons in Jamaica. This lifestyle is very different from a regular community. Since it's a garrison, 'a military station,' people have the right to take the law into their own hands.

Jamaica, let us not accept a lifestyle that is contrary to the interaction and socialisation of man between himself and his brothers, either inside or outside his community. Let us not become casual in the divide by which we have so much suffered over the years. A man should be able to share with his brothers, no matter what community he comes from. A garrison is not a place of brotherhood. Let's stop calling ourselves garrisons, but brothers with the same need for survival.

I am, etc.,

NYRON BLAKE

nyronblake@yahoo.com

Brooklyn, NY

Via Go-Jamaica